The Journal Times from Racine, Wisconsin • 13

KMX I i 'WMSfWBWM Fmm ilk dhfilk 4 IPjP An unlikely sponsor commissioned tne 275 worn or American art at the foundation of the tee Wustum It wasn't Andrew Carnegie. 11 i i i L-'T i-rj ni tuciu ueneiaciurs. Nope. It was Uncle Sam. 4 At a time when the powers steering national legislation are squeezing everything they can out of the National -Endowment for the Arts, it's hard to imagine a time when the government was literally throwing money at painters, dancers and musicians.

The argument today is that the arts aren't a priority when you consider the rising national debt, high tases and political instability around the globe. But in the depths cf the biggest financial U.S. history, fee Crest Depression, the hired thousands of people to sit at easels and paint the tvtrii around them, Eetwcen litJ5 atd IS tl 'Administration spent li million Atmri'xs, tift.it; and Shovels The An.i Eoosevelt's New Desl i 5,000 artists, paying tL-m -i -ps; i-n PA Construction workers. The artists had three weeis to paint a and four to six weeks to produce an oil. The cultural relief workers created 100,000 paintings, 18,000 sculptures, 2,500 large-scale murals and 250,000 art prints.

The proof of this strange-but true twist on welfare is hauled out of storage three or four tirr-rs a year when Wustum displays examples from its WTA collection, thought to be one of the largest ari bet in the Midwest. The works include photrgrspki by now-lcgondary artists Brett Weston and Berenice Abtiitt, a lithograph from important American artist Stewart Divis and a painting from Mexican artist Rifi.no Tamoyo. Other noted Midwest artists contributed, eamLng $25 a week to create images of America the wsy ethers dug ditches and built bridges. "Nobody would believe it at first. It seemed impossible," More on VTA, 2C III 45 ilk (gf if iteiffl Msmm 0.